The National Security Agency's bulk data collection programs disclosed in 2013 suggest a new model of surveillance. This "predictive surveillance" model will apply the emerging field of predictive analytics to the vast datasets in the hands of third parties. Unlike traditional surveillance, predictive surveillance will not begin by targeting individuals based on particularized suspicion. Instead, predictive surveillance will first collect and analyze all available data to find patterns that could predict future events. In light of the NSA's emphasis on data analysis and its existing stores of telephone and Internet communications metadata, it seems inevitable that the government will eventually advocate for predictive surveillance in antiterrorism investigations. This Article contends that the existing framework of surveillance regulation cannot adapt to predictive surveillance because the existing framework presumes that surveillance begins with targeting. The Article next assesses whether predictive surveillance could comply with the Fourth Amendment. After rejecting arguments that the Fourth Amendment should not apply to information gathered from third parties or in public spaces, the Article proposes a narrow basis for authorizing predictive surveillance. The initial data collection would be reasonable under the Supreme Court's balancing approach in domestic security investigations and under the Court's approval of suspicionless searches in its special needs cases. This approach, however, would only uphold surveillance used for antiterrorism investigations, rather than ordinary law enforcement purposes. Finally, the Article proposes a new regulatory framework that postpones the assessment of particularized suspicion, requires prior judicial approval of the initial data collection and analysis, limits use of the database to antiterrorism investigations, and imposes substantial oversight and transparency.


In recent years, a number of prominent political commentators have raised concerns about the lack of ideological diversity on college campuses (Shapiro 2004; Black 2004; Kors and Silvergate 1999; Kimball 1998). Among other accusations, they claim that liberal college professors may actually penalize students for expressing conservative opinions by assigning them lower marks on exams and assignments (Horowitz 2003; Hebel 2004). Their concern is not without merit. Researchers have found that, when evaluating a colleague's research, college professors are more critical of work that contradicts their own views (Mahoney 1977). It is logical to assume that the same bias influences professors' evaluations of students' arguments. It is also reasonable to expect that students, charged with the important task of evaluating their professors, are vulnerable to their own ideological biases.We thank Markus Kemmelmeier and Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier for their helpful suggestions and valuable guidance. We also acknowledge the valuable support of research assistants Jessica Defenderfer, Cristina Ciocirlan, and Kathleen Winters. Finally, we would like to acknowledge a debt of gratitude to the dozens of political science faculty throughout the country who took the time to distribute our survey to their undergraduate students. This project would not have been possible without their generous assistance. This research was funded through a Faculty Research Grant from Elizabethtown College.


OBJECTIVE
Beta 1 integrin is a representative adhesion molecule for cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions, and it provides costimulatory signals to T cells. However, the relevance of beta1 integrin to T cell activation in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) remains unclear. We undertook this study to perform a quantitative and functional analysis of beta1 integrin-mediated signaling to T cells in patients with SLE.

METHODS
Expression of cell surface molecules was assessed by flow cytometric analysis. Engagement of beta1 integrins was performed by crosslinking using a specific monoclonal antibody. To assess tyrosine kinases in beta1 integrin-mediated signaling, the cells were transfected with a wild-type (WT) focal adhesion kinase (FAK), a dominant-negative truncation of the FAK, or a WT PTEN expression plasmid via nucleofection.

RESULTS
Beta 1 integrin expression was significantly up-regulated on peripheral blood T cells from patients with active SLE, particularly those with the complication of World Health Organization class IV nephritis, whereas CD28 was significantly decreased in patients with active SLE compared with normal individuals. Beta 1 integrin expression closely correlated with serum hypocomplementemia. Engagement of beta1 integrin on T cells from patients with active SLE, but not on those from normal individuals, induced cell proliferation as well as CD40L expression on T cells. Up-regulation of CD40L expression and T cell proliferation, induced by beta1 integrin stimulation, were completely inhibited by transfection of the dominant-negative truncations of FAK or WT PTEN.

CONCLUSION
These results suggest that engagement of beta1 integrins on SLE T cells could induce FAK-mediated signaling and subsequent CD40L expression and proliferation. Thus, the beta1 integrin signaling cascade might serve to enhance autoreactive T cell activation.


The article is devoted to current issues and features of the investigation of improper performance of professional duties by a medical or pharmaceutical worker. Since recently the sphere of medical care has been increasingly suffering from a large number of criminal attacks, and the results of the investigation and evidence of guilt of the subjects of the crime require higher results, it would be appropriate to pay attention to the problems that law enforcement agencies today have to investigate this category criminal assaults. The main proposals regarding the investigation process of the improper performance of professional duties by medical workers are indicated.

The article analyzes statistical data that record a sufficiently large number of these criminal offenses, but the results of the consideration of these cases are imperfect. This is due to the complexity of the investigation of this category of cases, in particular their latency, insufficient evidence base, caused by the possibility of concealment or distortion of facts, etc.

To ensure an objective review of the case, namely, for the reliability and completeness of medical data, based on which the evidence base is built, it is proposed to use an electronic healthcare system, in particular, an electronic document management system, which, due to modern technologies for recording primary data, could eliminate the possibility of destruction of evidence (medical certificates, test results, medical history, etc.) and their further falsification.

To solve the problem of the lack of a methodology for investigating the improper fulfillment of professional duties by a medical or pharmaceutical worker, it is proposed to develop forensic issues regarding both the tactics of investigative actions and other aspects of the investigation of these criminal cases.

It is also proposed in the article to involve a doctor as a specialist in the interrogation of a medical professional, as he or she can formulate (with the permission of the investigator) those questions, the answers to which will give the necessary information to the experts who will subsequently conduct the examination.

Attention is also drawn to the fact that investigating crimes committed by healthcare professionals requires special competence and special training for investigators. Today, such discipline as Medical Law is taught only in some institutions of higher education in the training of specialists in specialty 081 Law, not to mention the educational program for bachelors or masters with the same name.

Despite this, it would be appropriate in higher education institutions conducting training for law enforcement personnel to introduce the discipline Medical Law, and for the most investigators investigating medical crimes, introduce an advanced training courses, trainings, online conferences that provided students with deeper knowledge about the features of the organization of the investigation of improper performance of professional duties by a medical or pharmaceutical worker.


In the paper I will be asking what information is, why it is so important (we spend huge amounts of money on its collection and distribution), and what (in its nature) accounts for this importance. Everybody seems to agree that information is important. Maybe even necessary. Nonetheless, there isn't much agreement about what it is. Engineers, computer scientists, educators, librarians, newscasters, the CIA and FBI, and, yes, even your neighborhood busybody traffic in information — they spend billions of dollars on its collection, storage, and retrieval — but there is little consensus about the nature of this commodity. To merit all this attention - an attention amounting, at times, to obsession — information must be at least three things: (1) It must be a semantic (intentional) entity; it must, that is, be about something; (2) it must, furthermore, be true; there is no false information; and (3) it must be transferable. These three properties define the nature of this metaphysical beast.


We have developed a new, portable I/O event manager for the Glasgow Haskell Compiler (GHC) that scales to the needs of modern server applications. Our new code is transparently available to existing Haskell applications. Performance at lower concurrency levels is comparable with the existing implementation. We support millions of concurrent network connections, with millions of active timeouts, from a single multithreaded program, levels far beyond those achievable with the current I/O manager. In addition, we provide a public API to developers who need to create event-driven network applications.


Interactions occur among plants in their struggle to obtain resources for growth and development. The outcome of these interactions is assessed in terms of competitive ability. A study was conducted in 1991 and 1992 to determine whether differences exist in the competitive ability of Waldern oat, Riel oat, Calibre oat, Harrington barley, CDC Makwa wheat, Gazelle rye and wild oat with low and high densities of green foxtail. At the low density of green foxtail, Harrington barley proved to be the superior competitor in 1991 whereas in 1992 there were no differences between the crop treatments. In 1991, at the high green foxtail density, Harrington barley was superior to all other crop cultivars except CDC Makwa wheat. In 1992 Harrington barley and wild oat proved to be the most competitive at the high green foxtail density. Studies such as this can provide valuable information to be applied to integrated weed management systems.


We tested whether chronic stimulation of skeletal muscle can increase the growth of paired arteries and veins in rabbit extensor digitorum longus muscle (EDL). The right EDL of female New Zealand White rabbits was stimulated via the common peroneal nerve at 10 Hz using 300 microseconds square waves at 3-4 V. Two-hour periods of stimulation was alternated with 4-h periods of rest, 7 days/wk for approximately 60 days. The left EDL served as control. The hindlimb vascular system was maximally dilated and perfuse-fixed with 3% glutaraldehyde and 2% paraformaldehyde at arterial and venous pressures of 80-100 and 15-20 mmHg, respectively. Muscles were postfixed in OsO4 and embedded in EPOX 812 resin. One millimeter-thick transverse sections were cut at uniform locations through the entire breadth of the muscle and analyzed using videomicroscopy along with computerized morphometric and stereological techniques. All paired arteries and veins on each full muscle section were analyzed. Chronic muscle stimulation caused the wall volume of paired arteries and veins to increase by an average of approximately twofold and the lumen volume to increase by an average of approximately threefold compared with the contralateral muscles. The wall-to-lumen area ratio of the arteries and veins was not affected. Muscle stimulation also caused the numerical density of arteries having a diameter > 100 microns to increase by approximately fourfold and the density of veins having a perimeter > 500 microns to increase by approximately 10-fold.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Based on good cation exchange property of vermiculite,the adsorption of vermiculite for simulated radionuclide Sr was studied by the static adsorption method. The adsorption behaviors and the effect of the experimental conditions were investigated. The results show that the saturated adsorption capacity of vermiculite sample for the simulated radionuclide Sr was 8.246×10-2 mmol/g. The suitable pH value ranged from 4 to 11, the balanceable adsorption time was 3d, and the suitable temperature was 30°C. The main adsorption type was cation exchange. The adsorption mechanism can be described by Langmuir and Freundlich models. It acts better in accord with Langmuir model, and the correlation coefficient is 0.99974. This experimental study has important significance on low concentration of Sr radioactive waste liquid treatment.


ABSTRACT Subject marginalisation is an on-going concern across the primary education sector, particularly for the arts and humanities. This poses issues for pre-service teacher partnerships and for higher education institutions (HEIs) evaluating the role of subjects within their teacher training courses as they reform their curricula to prepare students to teach across diverse educational contexts. Through the interpretation of student voice, we disseminate a case study with primary initial teacher education (ITE) students that investigates learner perceptions of their training in under-represented foundation subjects. Emerging themes include tensions between university and school-based practices, and between curriculum models, together with the need to develop student adaptability and self-direction. The authors propose that if ITE students explore and take on the dispositions of changemakers, they will become equipped with the self-efficacy and adaptability needed to develop secure bases for teaching foundation subjects as they begin their careers.


This study was conducted in the form of a historical analysis to understand and determine the various ways that human capital flight, better known as brain drain, has impacted Haiti and how occurrences such as political events, have influenced brain drain in return. The first research question seeks to identify determinants in Haiti that contribute to brain drain. An analysis shows that the three main contributors are the economy, healthcare, and education. The economy is a major factor because of the mishandling and insufficient availability of funding to provide and maintain job prospects. It also affects healthcare and education because Haiti is not financially stable and the country does not have enough fiscal capital to apportion to those systems. Healthcare is a contributing factor to brain drain because the pay to healthcare professionals such as doctors and nurses, who are lacking in accessibility, is lower than in other countries. Another contributor to brain drain is education because the education system is weak and not only do few individuals acquire a post-secondary education, there are few opportunities to advance in specialized fields of interest and conduct meaningful research. Also, the country does not have enough money to provide upgraded, recent resources and materials needed for research and studies. Brain drain has impacted political development because there are not enough policies to address many of the issues faced by Haiti, while economic development has been effected because the output of human capital is not enough to sustain the lost capital from highly-skilled emigrants. The development of education has been impacted by brain drain in the same way that education has influenced brain drain through the absence and lack of necessary educational resources, which is a result of the very low funding allocated to post-secondary education. The lack of job and career opportunities, as well as opportunities to advance in education, motivates Haiti's educated professionals to leave the country. The presidential reign of Francois Duvalier was imperative in influencing the brain drain epidemic that plagues Haiti because many Haitians emigrated to places such as the Dominican Republic, the United States, Canada, and Cuba. The reasons behind the emigration were as a result of many changing policies and rules that were enforced that placed many people's lives in jeopardy. In fear, numerous Haitians left the country for better career and lifestyle opportunities abroad and the number of documented Haitians that have left the country has continued to increase annually.


Background This study was aimed to reveal the role of miR-149-5p in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells apoptosis and the possible mechanism involved. Material/Methods The expression of miR-149-5p in leukemia cell lines, as well as the blood and bone marrow (BM) samples from leukemia patients, were monitored by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). AML cell line THP-1 was transfected with miR-149-5p mimic or inhibitor, and then cell apoptosis was determined using the APO Percentage assay kit. The target of miR-149-5p was predicted by using the microRNA.org database, and verified by RT-PCR, Western blot, and Dual-Luciferase reporter assays. Further, small interfering RNA (siRNA) against the target gene was co-transfected with miR-149-5p inhibitor, and then the cell apoptosis and the expression of apoptosis-related proteins were assessed. Results MiR-149-5p was significantly up-regulated in leukemia cell lines and samples from leukemia patients (P<0.01 or P<0.001), especially in THP-1 cells and samples from AML patients. Cell apoptosis was significantly decreased by miR-149-5p overexpression (P<0.01) and increased by miR-149-5p suppression (P<0.05). Fas Ligand (FASLG) was a direct target of miR-149-5p, and was negatively regulated by miR-149-5p. More importantly, the inductive effects of miR-149-5p suppression on cell apoptosis were abrogated by si-FASLG (P<0.01). Furthermore, the up-regulative effects of miR-149-5p suppression on the phosphorylated form of Fas-associated via death domain (p-FADD), caspase-8, caspase-2, caspase-3, and the cleaved forms of these caspases were abrogated by si-FASLG. Conclusions Inhibition of miR-149-5p can induce apoptosis in THP-1 cells. These inductive effects might be via targeting FASLG and activating FADD and caspases.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To review the current state of knowledge about the impact of cancer on ethnoculturally diverse and medically underserved survivors.

DATA SOURCES
MEDLINE, CancerLit, and Psychlit searches from 1966-present were conducted to locate articles about survivorship outcomes among minority and underserved populations.

DATA SYNTHESIS
65 articles were identified and grouped into one of four content areas: physiologic; psychosocial; health services, patterns of care, and quality of care; and health-promoting behaviors and lifestyles.

CONCLUSIONS
Despite limited information, researchers found a consistent theme: the need to recognize and address the socioeconomic and cultural variables that affect adaptation to and survival from cancer among diverse groups of survivors.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
The researchers found specific variations in risk for, response to, and recovery from cancer that provide direction for changes in nursing practice that may reduce the burden of cancer in these often vulnerable populations.


The prediction of phenotypic equilibrium states through reasoning about evolutionarily stable states (ESS's) is commonplace in evolutionary biology. When there is a specific genetic system underlying the transmission of phenotypes, however, genetic constraints may prevent the realization of phenotypic equilibria. With two-strategy games and a one-locus genetic system, the direction of selection is always toward an ESS, and all stable genetic equilibria that are not ESS's (non-ES equilibria) can be characterized as being as close to the ESS as the genetic system allows, at least locally. Starting from these non-ES equilibria, a series of computer simulations shows that the evolution of modifier genes at a second locus is expected to move the population closer to the ESS, although there are counterexamples. With multiple-strategy games, the genetic constraints are much more complex. It is not generally the case that genetic equilibria are "close" to the ESS in some sense


In this paper we adopt Charles Sanders Peirce's concept of iconicity to analyse pictural communication. While visual semiotics has a well-developed structural school, the concepts of visual semiotics stemming from Peirce's pragmatic sign theory are often overlooked. The specific purpose of this study is to explore the semiotics of visual signs, exemplified by two prominent pictures of former US President Donald Trump. We argue that Peirce's semiotic framework for iconicity in visual signs (the image, the diagram, and the metaphor) offers a useful framework for discussing how the meaning of visual signs is motivated. On this basis, we propose that Peirce's concept of hypoicons provides us with a richer understanding of how visual signs acquire meaning and how their interpretation varies across cultural habits, and collateral experience.


The strengthening of Yoroi-coil (Y-based oxide superconductor and reinforcing outer integrated coil) structure at stronger electromagnetic force was investigated using the Yoroicoil structured double-pancake coil with higher strength outer plates of carbon-fiber reinforced plastic (C-FRP) than those of glass-FRP. The coil achieved 1.14 kA transporting at 4.2 K in 14-T back-up magnetic field and the superconducting wire was burnt by thermal runaway after that. The calculated maximum hoop stress, based on the BJR (magnetic field × current density × coil radius) calculations, at the hoop stress test reached 2.0 GPa. This value was far exceeding the tensile strength of superconducting wire ranging from 1 to 1.3 GPa; however, the maximum strain of superconducting wire in the test coil was held about 0.5%. Yoroi-coil structure is useful for the applications, which need high magnetic field precision. The strengthening effect of C-FRP outer plates was observed at outer part of the coil, but it did not cover the whole coil body, so that arrangement of reinforcing outer plates could admit of some improvement.


Controlling is an upcoming idea in Real Estate Management. Up to now a comprehensive concept of Real Estate controlling is missing. This paper shows an revolutionary idea based on controlling determinants and the management ratio pyramid. (See power point presentation) Two aspects define the situation: On the one hand a lot of data is generated, especially via new technology (eg hi-tech house, fieldbus). All this information has to be analysed and worked with. On the other hand stakeholders (mainly owner, investor, occupant, facility services) need accurate data and management information for decision making as well as operating doing. On the ERES-conference in Weimar the authors want to present their concept and illustrate the idea. We are looking forward to an interesting discussion.


PurposeCustomer differences and similarities play a crucial role in service operations, and service industries need to develop various strategies for different customer types. This study aims to understand the behavioral pattern of customers in the banking industry by proposing a hybrid data mining approach with rule extraction and service operation benchmarking.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analyze customer data to identify the best customers using a modified recency, frequency and monetary (RFM) model and K-means clustering. The number of clusters is determined with a two-step K-means quality analysis based on the Silhouette, Davies–Bouldin and Calinski–Harabasz indices and the evaluation based on distance from average solution (EDAS). The best–worst method (BWM) and the total area based on orthogonal vectors (TAOV) are used next to sort the clusters. Finally, the associative rules and the Apriori algorithm are used to derive the customers' behavior patterns.FindingsAs a result of implementing the proposed approach in the financial service industry, customers were segmented and ranked into six clusters by analyzing 20,000 records. Furthermore, frequent customer financial behavior patterns were recognized based on demographic characteristics and financial transactions of customers. Thus, customer types were classified as highly loyal, loyal, high-interacting, low-interacting and missing customers. Eventually, appropriate strategies for interacting with each customer type were proposed.Originality/valueThe authors propose a novel hybrid multi-attribute data mining approach for rule extraction and the service operations benchmarking approach by combining data mining tools with a multilayer decision-making approach. The proposed hybrid approach has been implemented in a large-scale problem in the financial services industry.


The Foulden Maar deposit, a finely laminated lacustrine diatomite from the South Island of New Zealand, is the first high-resolution Oligocene-Miocene terrestrial climate record from the midlatitudes of the Southern Hemisphere. We use the presence of orbital and solar cycles within the physical properties records from the deposit to infer that the laminations are annual varves and that the deposit spans ∼100 k.y. When combined with magnetostratigraphy and 40 Ar/ 39 Ar data, we can assign the diatomite to chron C6Cn.2n (23.033–22.931 Ma), coeval with the rapid deglaciation of Antarctica during the second half of the Mi-1 transient glaciation event. Both obliquity and precession cycles occur in the physical properties records from the site, indicating a strong ocean-atmosphere coupling in the Southern Hemisphere and influence from both low and high latitudes. The appearance of a strong obliquity component, in particular, may indicate a transient incursion of the Subtropical Front onto the Campbell Plateau during the Mi-1 deglaciation.


The problem of estimating an adequate level of detail for an object for a specific view is one of the important problems in computer 3d-graphics and is especially important in real-time applications. The well-known continuous level-of-detail technique, Real-time Optimally Adapting Meshes (ROAM), has been employed with success for almost 10 years but has at present, due to rapid development of graphics hardware, been found to be inadequate. Compared to many other level-of-detail techniques it cannot benefit from the higher triangle throughput available on graphics cards of today.This thesis will describe the implementation of the new version of ROAM (informally known as ROAM 2.0) for the purpose of massive planetary data visualization. It will show how the problems of the old technique can be bridged to be able to adapt to newer graphics card while still benefiting from the advantages of ROAM. The resulting implementation that is presented here is specialized on spherical objects and handles both texture and geometry data of arbitrary large sizes in an efficient way.


This paper makes novel use of Heckman's sample selection methodology in modelling tourists' choices for cultural heritage attractions. The data used were collected as part of a discrete choice experiment which examined tourists' preferences for two heritage sites: the Knossos Palace and the Heraklion Archaeological Museum, both located on the island of Crete. In particular, the study addresses the possible discrepancies that may have arisen from the fact that the sample population may not have been random, but rather selected systematically as a result of the unobserved effect of the repeat visitation phenomenon. The empirical evidence presented suggests that the correction for sample selection provides a venue for further target audience selection for managers and policy makers. In particular, the main implication to emerge from the analysis is that the two heritage attractions, contrary to the general perception, are part of a tourism demand continuum. As a result, policy makers can capitalize on tourists' different perceptions in their promotion strategies for the two attractions by promoting the Heraklion Archaeological Museum to first-time visitors and the Knossos Palace to repeat visitors to Crete.


As the United States prepares for the 1990s, it faces a number of pressing policy issues. Some have simply been put aside during the conservative counter-reform of the 1980s. Others have been addressed during this period, but with mixed results. And some have emerged precisely because of failed political and economic policies that must now be addressed. Policy Issues for the 1990s presents a systematic approach to identifying policy issues that will be on the agenda for the next decade and perhaps beyond. This authoritative survey emphasizes the consequences for policymakers of decisions made by their predecessors and provides a blueprint for how to approach establishing a policy agenda for the next decade. Among the issues put on hold during preceding years has been the growing poverty of children, the emergence of an underclass, and the near collapse of the mental health system. Among issues that have received attention, but with uncertain success, are the strengthening of military defenses, the social and medical consequences of AIDS, and health care for the elderly. And among new issues that now require policy attention are the twin deficits of budget and trade, foreign policy in Central America and the Middle East, and the growing schism in the United States between the "haves" and the "have-nots." This volume evaluates these issues and boldly establishes an agenda for policy analysts of the next administration. As the Reagan administration learned and as its successor will doubtless find, perspectives and approaches that have had more than a decade of dominance in the policy arena are not eliminated automatically by an election or even by a new set of actors on the stage. For judicious policymakers of the 1990s, the challenge will be to initiate change as rapidly as practical, without destablizing the economy, the polity, or the society. Policy Issues for the 1990s is the latest in the Policy Studies Review Annual series, which brings together the most important and provocative policy research recently published in the United States and elsewhere. It distinguishes itself by its inclusion of original contributions representing the most recent thinking of key policy analysts that has not yet been published in the journal literature, addressing such themes as health care for the elderly, employee stock option programs, strategies to combat inflation, and changes in American educational policy. For more information, click here to go to the International Evalutaion Research Group web site.


The article deals with the problem of creating innovative competency management tool concerning high-tech industries. The application of such tool and mechanisms provides an opportunity to ensure the active implementation of intellectual property in the economic and commercial turnover, as well as to form a proactive response in the operational and strategic management of the intellectual property of the organization to the market challenges faced by the enterprise. Creating the innovative competency management tool aims at maintaining the competitiveness of the organization, its products and services, as well as providing conditions for effective development, use, implementation, and attraction of organization's innovative competencies. The practical outcome of the article consists of a developed innovative competency management tool provided with a description of the step-by-step technique, the elements of which can be automated in the form of a software package.


Three-dimensional numerical simulations have been constructed to investigate the distributions of apparent dihedral angles expected in unequilibrated rock textures for comparison with those expected in equilibrated rock textures. For unequilibrated, fully crystallized monomineralic rocks, the simulation shows that the distribution of apparent dihedral angles is nonrandom and similar to that expected from an equilibrated rock, and is largely independent of crystal shape and crystal nuclei distribution. This new distribution, together with the one previously derived for an equilibrated texture, defines a pair of apparent dihedral angle curves which encompass curves corresponding to any degree of textural equilibrium within a monomineralic rock. The location of a measured curve within this range allows a quantitative assessment of the degree of textural equilibrium within that rock. The simulations also show that unequilibrated, partially crystallized rocks generate apparent dihedral angle distributions for closed triangular pores that, depending on crystal shape, may mimic equilibrated dihedral angle distributions. They also indicate that unless a rock is in complete equilibrium, different dihedral angle distributions are produced by measuring the apparent dihedral angles of closed triangular or open nontriangular pores. An important conclusion of this work is that apparent dihedral angle curves for unequilibrated textures are similar to those for equilibrated textures. Therefore care must be taken when interpreting textural equilibrium from apparent dihedral angle curves.


SIR,-During the past five years a particular strain of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus has been recognised as being epidemic in the Thames regions.' 2 This strain not only can cause serious disease in some groups of patients but has also spread within and between hospitals in spite of attempts to prevent this happening. ' 3 4 Over the past 12 months we have obtained evidence that this organism is spreading outside the Thames regions, and we know of 10 instances where transfer of a patient infected or colonised with epidemic methicillin resistant S aureus has resulted in the first introduction of this strain into a hospital. Transfer of the organism is often associated with patients who have undergone specialised surgical or medical procedures in the London area and may be returning to hospitals distant from the Thames regions. The introduction of epidemic methicillin resistant S aureus into a hospital is a serious event; its control may involve heavy expenditure and curtailment of clinical services, increased patient morbidity, and even mortality. Goodfield and Littlewood have -recordedsome of the consequences of a transfer with subsequent spread to dermatology patients.5 We strongly advise that thought should be given to the undesirability of transferring patients in this way. If such transfers are necessary patients returning from London should be isolated until they are shown to be free of the organism. Recipient hospitals should be warned by hospitals transferring patients if this methicillin resistant strain is circulating. E M CooKE R R MARPLES


During the Census of Marine Life Polarstern ANDEEP I-III and Meteor M79/1 DIVA-3 expeditions, autonomous baited trap systems were employed to sample the mobile, necrophagous amphipods from abyssal depths. Within DIVA-3 (July 10–August 26 2009), a free-fall baited trap was used successfully at three stations in the southwest Atlantic, once in the Argentine Basin and twice in the Brazilian Basin. A total of twenty-one stations were sampled by baited traps during the ANDEEP I-III (2002, 2005) cruises in the Southern Ocean. Trap sets recovered large numbers of scavenging lysianassoid and alicelloid amphipods, including specimens of the widespread and commonly considered cosmopolitan uristid species Abyssorchomene abyssorum (Stebbing, 1888). During examinations of these and other North Atlantic collections of A. abyssorum, two similar new species A. patriciae sp. nov. and A. shannonae sp. nov. were discovered. Important morphological characters which differentiate the two new species from their congeners are found in the shape of the head lobe, coxa 1, gnathopod 2, coxa 5, pereopod 7 basis and uropod 3 rami length. The new species are fully figured and an identification key is provided. Abyssorchomene abyssorum is redescribed and for the first time, the female is fully described and illustrated from new material. The Southern Ocean endemic A. scotianensis (Andres, 1983) is also described and illustrated from new collections to complement the original description.


We prove qualitative estimates on the total curvature of closed minimal hypersurfaces in closed Riemannian manifolds in terms of their index and area, restricting to the case where the hypersurface has dimension less than seven. In particular, we prove that if we are given a sequence of closed minimal hypersurfaces of bounded area and index, the total curvature along the sequence is quantised in terms of the total curvature of some limit surface, plus a sum of total curvatures of complete properly embedded minimal hypersurfaces in Euclidean space - all of which are finite. Thus, we obtain qualitative control on the topology of minimal hypersurfaces in terms of index and area as a corollary.


The main objectives of this thesis were to: 1. investigate the effects of acute and chronic hypoxia on
human thermoregulation and mucosal immunity, specifically salivary immunoglobulin A (s-IgA) and
salivary alpha-amylase during mild cold exposure at rest (Chapter 4 and 5), 2. identify the
effectiveness of four practical field re-warming methods for the field treatment of cold casualties on
thermoregulation and metabolism (Chapter 6), 3. examine the s-IgA response during and following
mild hypothermia (Chapter 7) and 4. determine the efficacy of three field protection methods for the
prevention of heat loss in non-shivering cold casualties using an in vitro torso model exposed to -
18.5°C, 0°C and 18.5°C for four hours (Chapter 8).
Two hours of exposure to a simulated high altitude of 4000m, regardless of hypoxic acclimatisation,
did not alter core or mean skin temperature during cold exposure. Nonetheless, hypoxia reduced
metabolic heat production which may cause thermoregulatory implications during longer bouts of
cold exposure. Chronic hypoxia reduced thermal sensitivity to the cold which may lead individuals
to neglect appropriate behavioural thermoregulation and increase the risk of local and whole body
cold injuries. Given s-IgA responses were unaffected by hypoxia in the cold before and following the
18 day mountaineering expedition suggests individuals are not at risk from URTI upon arrival to
altitude.
During a three hour 'awaiting rescue' scenario following cold water immersion to reduce core
temperature, a triple layered, metallised survival product with cells to trap heat and self-activating
chemical heat pads was more superior at re-warming cold individuals compared to other methods
tested. The insulative attribute of this survival bag may reduce possible shivering-induced fatigue
and the subsequent increase in heat loss during more prolonged periods of cold exposure (> 4 hours).
A reduction in core temperature (≥ 1.5°C) resulting from cold water immersion and subsequent cold
air exposure suppressed the usual daily s-IgA response which may increase susceptibility to illness
and infection (i.e. URTI, common colds, influenza) if re-warming is not initiated immediately.
A non-shivering, in vitro torso model demonstrated that a triple-layered, metallised survival product
with cells to trap heat and self-activating chemical heat pads was the most superior of three field cold
protection methods to reduce heat loss during exposure to a variety of ambient temperatures (-
18.5°C, 0°C and 18.5°C) for four hours.
It would appear when individuals experience cold stress at sea level or altitude, a triple-layered,
metallised survival product with cells to trap heat and self-activating chemical heat pads may be the
optimal light-weight field treatment to counteract the potential onset of hypothermia. For nonshivering
casualties, this survival product may greatly reduce heat loss creating a longer survival
time while waiting for evacuation to superior medical treatments (e.g. hospitals).
The overall aim of this thesis was to clarify the immediate health risks for individuals exposed to the
extreme environments of cold and/or hypoxia, and if simple countermeasures which can be easily
administered, offer suitable protection in the field to reduce such risks. The key message of this
thesis is that individuals exposing themselves to cold and/or hypoxia when un-acclimatised to such
conditions should carry self-administering survival bags and follow a specific programme of
monitoring thermoregulation and upper respiratory symptoms in order to remain free of illness (e.g.
rhinovirus, bronchitis) and peripheral or central cold injury (e.g. hypothermia and frostbite).


The aim of the current analysis is to complement existing studies of aircraft maintenance incidents by providing finer and more detailed explanations for their causes in terms of task and error types. A total of 109 aircraft maintenance incidents were analyzed with respect to knowledge and concepts from psychology and cognitive engineering. The skill, rule and knowledge-based framework by Rasmussen (1983) was used to identify the main task types involved in the incidents. Error types such as post-completion error, prospective memory failure and data-entry error were used as part of the analysis. System usability and the occurrence of interruptions, distractions and multitasking were also adopted as important factors in the analysis. Results suggest that more than 60% of the incidents involved rule-based performance. Almost 50% of the rule-based incidents can be explained in terms of the errors types and factors identified. This analysis provides a starting point for practitioners to discuss aircraft maintenance incidents using theoretically grounded concepts.


Objectives: To design digital PID controller by using CHR-I and CHR-II tuning techniques, as it helps in finding out the tuning parameters of controllers for a specific system. Transformation of analog to digital PID controller using various transformation techniques like first order hold method, impulse-invariant mapping, Tustin approximation and zero-pole mapping equivalents and also the mathematical modeling of blood glucose level, such that a system injects the exact amount of insulin into the body of diabetic patient to maintain his/her glucose level to the normal range. Method/Statistical Analysis: The differential equation of the blood glucose level is formulated and then it is converted to three-dimensional Laplace equation using forward Laplace transform. Using the Laplace transform the differential equation of the blood glucose is converted into a s-domain equation. Then, using the s-domain equation as the equation of the system and the Tuning techniques, CHR-I and CHR-II, the tuning parameters (Kp, Ki and Kd) are acquired. Then, it is converted into digital, i.e. in z-domain, by applying disparate transformation techniques. Findings: On analyzing the acquired equation, it is depicted that on tuning the controller with CHR-I tuning technique the system exhibits zero overshoot which is most reliable and efficient for diabetic patient. Also, a considerable settling time of 6.3362 seconds is also achieved. Application/Improvement: Therefore, a system that can inject the exact amount of insulin into the patient's blood and bring the blood glucose level to the normal range, by automatically calculating the amount of insulin required, from the available status of blood glucose level, is being achieved.


Malaria in sub-Saharan Africa is transmitted mainly by Anopheles gambiae Complex mosquitoes. One way of controlling these vectors is by targeting their aquatic stages, which is anticipated to cause significant reduction in adult vectors, hence in malaria transmission. Use of insect growth regulator, Pyriproxyfen, is one potential way of controlling malaria vectors. This study set out to determine the nymphocidal activity of Pyriproxyfen on non-target aquatic dragonfly nymphs during its application to control malaria vectors in western Kenya highlands. In this study, validation of dragonfly nymphs as predators of malaria vectors was done and impact of Pyriproxyfen on these nymphs was determined in Mahanga Village of Vihiga County in western Kenya highlands. One hundred dragonfly nymphs were exposed to third instar larvae of A. gambiae to determine their predation efficiency by counting the number of larvae remaining after predation. Eighty 5th instar dragonfly nymphs were exposed to Pyriproxyfen (Sumilarv0.5 G) at concentrations of 0.01ppm, 0.05ppm, 0.1ppm, and filtered tap water as control. The experiment was replicated four times and repeated in ten rounds in the laboratory. Observations were made at 24 hour intervals and data collected on mortality of dragonfly nymphs. One gram of Pyriproxyfen was applied in the 10 randomly selected mosquito breeding habitats at Mahanga once every month. Control experiments in An. gambiae breeding habitats were done at Muluhoro study site located 10Km away from Mahanga to avoid contamination by Pyriproxyfen (Sumilarv 0.5G). Percentage predation of 95% was obtained in 24 hours of exposure of An. gambiae larvae indicating that the dragonfly nymphs are efficient predators of A. gambiae. The insect growth regulator Pyriproxyfen (Sumilarv 0.5G) had nymphocidal activity on the dragonfly nymphs at a concentration of 0.05ppm and 0.1ppm in laboratory assays. Abundance of dragonfly nymphs in An. gambiae breeding habitat was determined by comparing the abundance of dragonfly nymphs in the intervention sites at Mahanga and non intervention site at Muluhoro. The results indicated that the dragonfly nymphs were present in both sites over the 11month period. Analysis using Generalized Estimation Equations (GEE) showed that the abundance of dragonfly nymphs was significantly different (p<0.01) and there was insignificant nymphocidal activity of Pyriproxyfen (Sumilarv 0.5G) on the dragonfly nymphs in both the intervention and non intervention (p>0.05). The findings of this study have shown that Pyriproxyfen (Sumilarv 0.5G) had insignificant nymphocidal activity on dragonfly nymph when used as a larvicide at lower concentrations of 0.05ppm (p>0.05). The study recommends that dragonfly nymphs should be included in mosquito control programs as they are predators of mosquito larvae. Additionally, Pyriproxyfen should not be used at higher dosages of more than 0.05ppm as it affects non target dragonfly nymphs.


Abstract Genes related to the response to drought stress in leaf and root tissue of drought-susceptible (DS) and tolerant (DT) genotypes were characterized by RNA-Seq. In total, 54,750 transcripts, representative of 28,590 genes, were identified; of these, 1,648 were of high-fidelity (merge of 12 libraries) and described for the first time in the Andean germplasm. From the 1,239 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), 458 were identified in DT, with a predominance of genes in categories of oxidative stress, response to stimulus and kinase activity. Most genes related to oxidation-reduction terms in roots were early triggered in DT (T75) compared to DS (T150) suggestive of a mechanism of tolerance by reducing the damage from ROS. Among the KEGG enriched by DEGs up-regulated in DT leaves, two related to the formation of Sulfur-containing compounds, which are known for their involvement in tolerance to abiotic stresses, were common to all treatments. Through qPCR, 88.64% of the DEGs were validated. A total of 151,283 variants were identified and functional effects estimated for 85,780. The raw data files were submitted to the NCBI database. A transcriptome map revealed new genes and isoforms under drought. These results supports a better understanding of the drought tolerance mechanisms in beans.


After the advent of ECG gated cardiac CT angiography (CCTA) there has been significant improvement in image quality of the ascending aorta. As a result the sinuses of valsalva are readily assessable. Sinuses of valsalva aneurysm can cause significant dysfunction of the aortic root and annulus and can be congenital or acquired. The aneurysm most commonly originates from the right coronary sinus. Complications related to sinuses of valsalva aneurysm can cause chest pain and can be life threatening. The cardiac imager should actively assess the sinuses of valsalva in every CCTA study.


This thesis envisions a new suburban approach based on future uncertainties in environmental, economic and social conditions. The review of responses suggest that resilience building is a viable option for such uncertainties and therefore, focus has been placed on Toronto's suburban housing stock, despite criticism for its fragility and inability to function or change in a future without cheap energy. Although it is often argued that low density neighbourhoods will be unsustainable in a future of environmental uncertainty and that they will not endure the coming crises of peak oil and climate change, Toronto's suburban building stock is ideal for resilience building and will in fact be a vital aspect of Toronto's durability in an uncertain future. This thesis examines different aspects of resilience building in regards to environmental, social and economic uncertainty including: localisation over globalisation, economies of well-being, an ecological systems approach, and rethinking zoning regulations and by-laws. This new vision for the suburbs serves not to replace them with dense urban models, but to maintain and add to suburban qualities while also provoking new ideas for introducing resilience into our built environment.


When developing new ICT systems and applications for domestic environments, rich qualitative approaches improve the understanding of the user's integral usage of technology in their daily routines and thereby inform design. This knowledge will often be reached through in-home studies, strong relationships with the users and their involvement in the design and evaluation process. However, whilst this kind of research offers valuable context insights and brings out unexpected findings, it also presents methodological, technical and organizational challenges for the study design and its underlying cooperation processes. In particular, due to heterogeneous users in households in terms of technology affinity, individual needs, age distribution, gender, social constellations, personal role assignment, project expectations, etc. it produces particular demands to collaborate with users in the design process and thereby exposes a range of practical challenges. The full-day workshop wishes to identify these practical challenges, discuss best practice and develop a roadmap for sustainable relationships for design with users.


This enlightening and significant volume focuses on the nature, causes and features of economic growth across a wide range of countries and regions. Covering a variety of growth related topics – from theoretical analyses of economic growth in general to empirical analyses of growth in the OECD, transition economies and developing economies – the distinguished cast of contributors addresses some of the most important contemporary issues and developments in the field.


Two experiments examined the effects of age of acquisition (AoA) and the gender of stimulus faces on familiarity decisions (Experiment 1) and gender decisions (Experiment 2) to the same set of famous and unfamiliar faces presented as whole faces, internal features or external features. In Experiment 1, familiarity decisions were faster to whole faces than to internal or external features. Famous faces with early AoA were recognised faster than later acquired faces, though the effect was only reliable for famous male faces, and for whole faces and internal features rather than for external features. In Experiment 2, gender decisions were made more rapidly to whole faces than to internal or external features. Classification was faster to famous than to unfamiliar faces when the faces were presented as internal features or external features, but not when they were presented as whole faces. More gender classification errors were made to famous than to unfamiliar male faces, but there was no effect of familiarity on the accuracy of responses to female faces. AoA had no effect on gender classification of whole faces or external features. Classification from internal features was faster for early than for late acquired male faces, but faster for late than for early female faces. In the light of the anomalous results for female faces, responses to male faces were analysed separately. The results for the male faces form the focus of the discussion.


Laboratory and field studies were conducted on rice seeds (Oryza sativa L.) of about 12% moisture content to screen six upland cultivars grown in south-western Nigeria for drought resistance. Maximum germination in the laboratory, and plant height, number of tillers per plant, leaf area, dry weight, and seed yield in the field at all levels of water stress were obtained for the three cultivars : Ekpoma local, FARO-11, and ITA-315. The study showed that germination tests using mannitol can be used to screen rice germplasm for drought resistance. Susceptibility to water stress was shown by decreased germination percentage, reduction in root length, reduced leaf area, and stunted growth compared to the resistant cultivars. Chlorophyll and relative water content of the leaves also showed that FARO-11, Ekpoma local, and ITA-315 are drought-resistant genotypes.


In the 1990s, the World Wide Web has revolutionized the way in which know ledge seekers satisfy their thirst for knowledge. During the recent ye ars, a technological and social paradigm shift called Web 2.0 attracted a lot of attention in the I nternet community and is considered a major evolution of the web. New online applicati ons make it easier for individuals to learn, using the vast information provide d by the Internet and the collective intelligence of its users. The Encyclope dia of Life, a global repository for all kinds of information related to life on earth, builds upon the vision of Wikipedia and enhances it with Web 2.0 technologies and a concept for assuring high quality content. After a brief review of the development of the web as a learning resource, the authors of this paper present the concept of the Encyclopedia of Life as a knowledge pool for the domain of biology and compare it to the Wikipedia.


Background : Carbon monoxide (CO) was previously only considered as a highly toxic pollutant since it binds to hemoglobin with high affinity. Recently, however, it has been recognized as a signaling molecule with regulatory roles in many physiological and pathophysiological processes within the cardiovascular system. The aim of this study was to clarify the behavior of CO in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Methods : We assessed 235 patients with suspected ACS, 98 smokers (88 male, 62 ± 14 years) and 137 nonsmokers (77 male, 72 ± 13 years), who had undergone emergent cardiac catheterization and blood sampling for calculation of carboxyhemoglobin (COHb). Patients were categorized into 4 groups : smoking patients with ACS (n=77), smoking patients without ACS (n=21), non-smoking patients with ACS (n=97), and non-smoker patients without ACS (n=40). We investigated whether biomarkers were related to COHb levels. Results : LogCOHb was significantly higher in the smoking patients compared to non-smoking patients (0.30 ± 0.12 vs. 0.45 ± 0.18, P < 0.01). Interestingly, among the non-smoking patients, COHb was increased in the ACS patients compared to the non ACS patients (0.31 ± 0.12 vs. 0.25 ± 0.12 P < 0.01). In contrast, among the smoking patients, there was no difference in COHb between the ACS and non-ACS patients (0.45 ± 0.18 vs. 0.44 ± 0.18, n.s.). There were no correlations between COHb and any of the biomarkers. Conclusions : These results suggest that endogenous CO may be useful to assess the risk of car-


This recipe encourages learners to develop their critical and analytic listening skills by seeking and recording sounds in their environment as a basis for music composition. The use of unorthodox (i.e. not inherently musical) sounds in a compositional context develops critical listening, creative use of recorded material, and encourages the exploration of the sonic and functional possibilities afforded by DAW technologies in working with and manipulating audio as a basis for composition. Designed for first-year university students studying popular music composition, learners may find this activity engaging and enriching as it encourages outside-of-the-box thinking and attuning to a more vast world of sound and music.


Safe, efficient, and comfortable travel has always been a fundamental human necessity. From reducing commute time to saving lives, autonomous vehicles promise to be an indispensable tool in the age of modern urban transportation. However, implementing such a disruptive technology comes with significant challenges, a major one being accurate vehicle positioning and localization. In situations such as urban cores, parking lots, and under dense foliage, positioning information provided by the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) deteriorates significantly. GNSS is increasingly integrated with other systems such as the inertial navigation system (INS) and Visual Odometry (VO) to bridge these outages. The major drawback of current integration systems is that they are unable to provide a stable navigation estimate during extended and frequent GNSS outages, situations common to autonomous vehicles. To improve the overall system accuracy, this thesis presents a multi-sensor navigation solution that integrates GNSS with a low-cost inertial measurement unit (IMU) and VO. Firstly, a switching architecture is detailed, which implements a loosely coupled extended Kalman filter (EKF) that fuses VO updates only when GPS is unavailable, reducing computational resources while limiting the errors inherent in an INS. Secondly, termed R-AVO (Reduced Aided Visual Odometry), the orientation i and translation of a vehicle, as determined by a low drift INS algorithm, is used to evaluate which feature matches from the processed image frames are to be considered in VO. This method is shown to be both more accurate and less computationally expensive than classic feature outlier rejection schemes, which are iterative in nature. Reducing the computation complexity of VO paves the way for even more sensors to be utilized by a vehicle. The developed algorithms are evaluated on several real road trajectories, including simulated outages that are as long as 10 minutes. To ensure generic implementations, two different land vehicles are used in the trajectories and two different IMUs were tested.


Mobile health applications, which employ wireless technology for healthcare, can aid behaviour change and subsequently improve health outcomes. Mobile health applications have been developed to increase physical activity, but are rarely grounded on behavioural theory and employ simple techniques for personalisation, which has been proven effective in promoting behaviour change. In this work, we propose a theoretically driven and personalised behavioural intervention delivered through an adaptive knowledge-based system. The behavioural system design is guided by the Behavioural Change Wheel and the Capability-Opportunity-Motivation behavioural model. The system exploits the ever-increasing availability of health data from wearable devices, point-of-care tests and consumer genetic tests to issue highly personalised physical activity and sedentary behaviour recommendations. To provide the personalised recommendations, the system firstly classifies the user into one of four diabetes clusters based on their cardiometabolic profile. Secondly, it recommends activity levels based on their genotype and past activity history, and finally, it presents the user with their current risk of developing cardiovascular disease. In addition, leptin, a hormone involved in metabolism, is included as a feedback biosignal to personalise the recommendations further. As a case study, we designed and demonstrated the system on people with type 2 diabetes, since it is a chronic condition often managed through lifestyle changes, such as physical activity increase and sedentary behaviour reduction. We trained and simulated the system using data from diabetic participants of the UK Biobank, a large-scale clinical database, and demonstrate that the system could help increase activity over time. These results warrant a real-life implementation of the system, which we aim to evaluate through human intervention.


The fungus Cladosporium sphaerospermum was isolated from a biofilter used for the removal of toluene from waste gases. This is the first report describing growth of a eukaryotic organism with toluene as the sole source of carbon and energy. The oxygen consumption rates, as well as the measured enzyme activities, of toluene-grown C. sphaerospermum indicate that toluene is degraded by an initial attack on the methyl group.


Multi environment and spatial analysis of early maturing sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] genotypes in dry lowland areas of Ethiopia

 Amare Seyoum1, Amare Nega1, Kedanemaryam Wagaw1, Taye Tadesse2, Diriba Tadesse2, Alemu Tirfessa1, Habte Nida3, Adane Gebereyhones1, Sewmehone Siraw1, Tsegaye Gebremariam4, Chalachew Endalamaw1, Hailemariam Solomon1, Tamirat Bejiga1, Tokuma Legesse1, David Jordan5, Emma Mace5, Daniel Nadew1, Ligaba Ayele1 and Meron Bogale1

 1Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), Melkassa Agriculture Research Center, P. O. Box 436, Adama, Ethiopia.

 2Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), Head Quarter, P. O. Box 2003 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

 3Purdue University, 610 Purdue Mall, West Lafayette, IN 47907, United States.

 4Tigray Agricultural Research Institute (TARI), P. O. Box 492, Mekelle, Ethiopia.

 5Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, Hermitage Research Facility 604 Yangan Rd Warwick QLD 4370, Australia.

 Received 28 September, 2019; Accepted 31 January, 2020

 In Ethiopia, drought usually occur due to delay in onset, dry spell after sowing, drought during critical crop stage (flowering and grain filling stage) and too early cessation of rainfall. These situations can be addressed by developing improved sorghum varieties which are resistance to drought. Developments of sorghum varieties resistant to drought and producing better grain yield while addressing the plant biomass requirement is one of the strategies in the sorghum breeding program in dry lowland environment. A total of 90 early maturing sorghum genotypes were evaluated along with two standard check varieties to estimate the grain yield, plant height, days to flowering, days to maturity and overall agronomic aspects and stability of performance across the test environments. The trial was conducted using Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) in row and column arrangement. Linear mixed model has been used to predict and identify stable and superior varieties across the test environment. Correlations of the trials range from positive +1 to -1 where positive correlation is an indication of similarity among the testing environments while negative correlation is an indication of non-similarity among testing environments. Moreover, using the biplot it was observed that the stability and correlation among testing site where the angle between the two lines measure the strength of correlation. Improvement in heritability has been obtained due to spatial variation using advanced statistical analysis methods without any additional cost. Three genotypes exhibited better yield advantage, higher plant biomass and overall plant aspect including drought tolerance. In addition, these genotypes were preferred by farmers in their overall agronomic desirability (drought tolerance, earliness, head exertion and compactness, grain size and shape and threshability. Also, the national variety releasing committed has evaluated the variety verification trial both on station and farmers' field condition in 2018/2019 and they decided the release of the candidate variety 14MWLSDT7114 (2005MI5060/E-36-1) for commercial production in dry lowland environment.

 Key words: Genotype, heritability, mixed model, Spatial analysis, GEI, correlated environment.


This paper describes research concerning the resin impregnation and characterization of multidimensionally braided fiber-reinforced composite materials. These materials are an alternative to traditional laminated structures, having the potential for being more damage tolerant. Three graphite fiber systems were used in this investigation, and three processes were investigated for resin impregnation of the multidimensionally braided material using vacuum or pressure. Two were resin transfer techniques and the third was a resin film lamination technique. While all three methods are presented, the latter technique was chosen for impregnating the test specimens due to the consistently low void content and superior surface quality achieved by this method. Three variables having an important bearing on the performance of braided materials were investigated. These included the effect of braid pattern, tow size, and edge condition on the tensile, compressive, flexural, and interlaminar shear properties. The properties were obtained in the braid direction only. The cutting of the specimen edges substantially reduced both tensile and flexural strengths and moduli. Of the three braid patterns investigated (1 x 1, 1 x 1 × ½F and 3 x I), the 3 x I braid showed superior tensile performance and the 1 x I x ½F pattern exhibited superior flexural properties. Variation in fiber tow size caused variations in tensile, flexural, and short-beam shear properties. The 12K tow size specimens exhibited the best performance. All braided composite materials in the uncut edge condition showed significant improvements in their short-beam shear strengths, being equal to or greater than unidirectional laminated composites. This latter characteristic may be one of several indicators that multidimensionally braided composites are inherently damage tolerant.


Although radiation therapy is commonly used for treatment for many human diseases including cancer, ionizing radiation produces reactive oxygen species that can damage both cancer and healthy cells. Synthetic triterpenoids, including CDDO-Me, act as anti-inflammatory and antioxidant modulators primarily by inducing the transcription factor Nrf2 to activate downstream genes containing antioxidant response elements (AREs). In the present series of experiments, we determined if CDDO-Me can be used as a radioprotector in normal non-cancerous human lung and breast epithelial cells, in comparison to lung and breast cancer cell lines. A panel of normal non-cancerous, partially cancer progressed, and cancer cell lines from both lung and breast tissue was exposed to gamma radiation with and without pre-treatment with CDDO-Me. CDDO-Me was an effective radioprotector when given ∼18 hours before radiation in epithelial cells (average dose modifying factor (DMF) = 1.3), and Nrf2 function was necessary for CDDO-Me to exert these radioprotective effects. CDDO-Me did not protect cancer lines tested from radiation-induced cytotoxicity, nor did it protect experimentally transformed human bronchial epithelial cells (HBECs) with progressive oncogenic manipulations. CDDO-Me also protected human lymphocytes against radiation-induced DNA damage. A therapeutic window exists in which CDDO-Me protects normal cells from radiation by activating the Nrf2 pathway, but does not protect experimentally transformed or cancer cell lines. This suggests that use of this oral available, non-toxic class of drug can protect non-cancerous healthy cells during radiotherapy, resulting in better outcomes and less toxicity for patients.


Direct numerical simulations of the motion of up to 216 three-dimensional buoyant bubbles in periodic domains are presented. The full Navier–Stokes equations are solved by a parallelized finite-difference/front-tracking method that allows a deformable interface between the bubbles and the suspending fluid and the inclusion of surface tension. The governing parameters are selected such that the average rise Reynolds number is about 12–30, depending on the void fraction; deformations of the bubbles are small. Although the motion of the individual bubbles is unsteady, the simulations are carried out for a sufficient time that the average behaviour of the system is well defined. Simulations with different numbers of bubbles are used to explore the dependence of the statistical quantities on the size of the system. Examination of the microstructure of the bubbles reveals that the bubbles are dispersed approximately homogeneously through the flow field and that pairs of bubbles tend to align horizontally. The dependence of the statistical properties of the flow on the void fraction is analysed. The dispersion of the bubbles and the fluctuation characteristics, or 'pseudo-turbulence', of the liquid phase are examined in Part 2.


Increasing the efficiency of nutrient uptake can significantly reduce the cost of production, since fertilizer cost is about 30% of total cost of oil palm production. Despite many agronomic trials on the response of oil palm to various fertilizers, there were few published information on the multidisciplinary study of physiological responses with cations e.g. potassium (K), calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg). Therefore, this study is necessary to increase efficiency in the oil palm nutrient management system through multidisciplinary aspects of soil and plant physiology. The trial was conducted in the nursery of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) Research Station in Lahad Datu, Sabah. Oil palm seedlings were grown in polybag filled with two types of soil i.e Semporna Family which contain high exchangeable Ca or Lumpongan Family with low exchangeable Ca. Semporna soil was tested at 32 levels of K and Mg and Lumpongan was tested at 33 levels of K, Ca and Mg with three replicates. Among the parameters studied were vegetative measurements, relative chlorophyll content and leaf relative water content. Destructive samplings of whole plants were done and seedlings were separated into rachis, pinnae, stem and roots. The tissues were then used to determine K, Mg and Ca concentrations and uptake. Soil samples were taken at the beginning and the end of trials and subsequently analysed for cations content. Leaf gas exchange parameters were measured using a portable infrared gas analyser two weeks before the final destructive sampling. Pre-treatment analysis showed that the exchangeable K, Mg and Ca in Lumpongan soil were 0.35, 6.74 and 6.07 cmol (+) kg-1 respectively. Meanwhile, in Semporna soil the exchangeable K, Mg and Ca were 0.17, 1.22 and 33.50 cmol (+) kg-1. Application of cation fertilizers significantly increased respective exchangeable cations in both soils. There were non significant increases in seedling dry matter components with regards of cations treatments in both soils. The concentration and uptake of K in seedling components were increased significantly by K fertilizer in both soils. Magnesium fertilizer was not recommended on Lumpongan soil but 6.69 g of Mg per seedling are needed to sustain the growth of seedling in Semporna soil. The seedling recovery efficiency for K and Ca in Lumpongan soil was about 3.65 and 1.21%, respectively. Meanwhile, in Semporna soil the recovery efficiency for K and Mg was about 4.56 and 2.54%, respectively. This study showed that total cation in oil palm seedling leaves was largely determined by soil exchangeable calcium rather than K or Mg. The proportion of individual tissue cation to total cations was fairly constant, i.e about 29% if the soil exchangeable calcium is high (> 25 cmol (+) kg-1). This was considered sufficiently balance for oil palm nutrient requirement. However, excessive amount of exchangeable Mg in soil (> 4.75 cmol (+) kg-1) such as Lumpongan soil resulted in an imbalance proportion of individual tissue cation to total cation. The oil palm seedling vegetative growth, leaf tissues turgidity and chlorophyll content exhibited less sensitivity to cation treatments as indicated by non significant difference in both soils. Excessive amount of Ca in Semporna soil contributed to low shoot to root ratio of the seedlings by 7 to 9% as compared to Lumpongan soil. The photosynthesis rate on Lumpongan and Semporna soils ranged from 8.52 to 9.45 μmol m-2s-1 and 7.07 to 8.66 μmol m-2s-1, respectively. This implies that, cations treatments did not significantly reduce the photosynthesis rate. It was also concluded that the stomata conductance and intercellular CO2 concentrations of seedlings in both soils were adequate to support leaf gas exchange as indicated by non significant different between treatments. In conclusion, combinations of K1 (35.11 g K) + Mg0 (0 g Mg) + Ca1 (14 g Ca) and K2 (70.22 g K) + Mg1 (6.69 g Mg) were recommended for sustaining optimum growth, nutrient uptake and physiological requirement in oil palm seedlings grown in Lumpongan and Semporna soils, respectively. These combinations take into account the total dry matter production, uptake, recovery efficiency and physiological characteristics of oil palm seedlings at each cation levels.


We consider several market models, where time is subordinated to a stochastic process. These models are based on various time changes in the Lévy processes driving asset returns, or on fractional extensions of the diffusion equation; they were introduced to capture complex phenomena such as volatility clustering or long memory. After recalling recent results on option pricing in subordinated market models, we establish several analytical formulas for market sensitivities and portfolio performance in this class of models, and discuss some useful approximations when options are not far from the money. We also provide some tools for volatility modelling and delta hedging, as well as comparisons with numerical Fourier techniques.


Abstract Purpose The purpose of this study was to describe the burden and educational needs of informal caregivers of care-dependent older adults with urinary incontinence (UI). Design A cross-sectional, descriptive survey of informal caregivers recruited through Google Ads was performed. Methods An online survey, including the Overactive Bladder-Family Impact Measure, was used to assess five areas of the experience of the informal caregiver that may be affected by caring for a person with UI and their educational needs. Findings Respondents (n = 77) reported a substantial impact of their care recipients' UI on their lives, with concern, travel, and social subscales most affected. However, 42% never sought treatment on behalf of their care recipient. Educational needs included UI treatment strategies and guidance to select appropriate supplies. Conclusions Caregivers underreported their care recipient's UI and need substantially more support from healthcare providers to manage the condition. Clinical Relevance Nurses should assess for UI among care-dependent older adults and, if present, provide information and strategies to lessen the impact on caregiver lives.


Biomass and respiration rates of bacteria, nematodes and macrobenthos were estimated in relation to the deposition of the spring phytoplankton bloom at two contrasting sites in the Southern North Sea: one with fine-grained sediment close to the coastline and another with highly permeable sediments. Sediment community oxygen consumption (SCOC) was also measured. Bacterial biomass was relatively similar at both stations, whereas nematode and macrobenthic biomass were higher in fine-grained sediment. In fine sediments, bacterial biomass increased quickly after deposition of the phytoplankton bloom, whereas the response of nematodes and macrobenthos was delayed. In coarser sediments, nematodes and macrobenthos also showed a fast response in terms of density and biomass. Respiration in permeable sediments was mainly dominated by bacteria at all periods of the year. Hence, nematode and macrobenthic respiration did not contribute strongly to SCOC. This is in contrast to the patterns observed in finer sediments, where both macrofauna and nematodes were important oxygen consumers as well. Macrobenthos contributed more to total SCOC than did nematodes in winter. However, shortly after the arrival of phytodetritus at the sea floor, nematodes and macrobenthos contributed equally to the total SCOC, indicating that all benthic size classes should be taken into account when investigating marine benthic respiration rates.


The internal and external dose rates received by a marine organism, were calculated using the MCNP-CP code and the ERICA Assessment Tool. MCNP/MCNPX is a general purpose Monte Carlo code for the transport of all kinds of particles, while ERICA is a more specified software tool for assessing the radiological risk to terrestrial, freshwater and marine biota. A pelagic organism living only in the water medium, was chosen as a start for this comparison. Additionally, two different coastal areas: Stratoni port at Ierissos Gulf, Greece [1] and Shatt al-Arab estuary at Arabic or Persian Gulf [2] were selected. Both areas are receiving the impact of anthropogenic activities as those related with metal mining (Stratoni port) and oil and gas exploration (Arabic/Persian Gulf). The measured concentrations of natural 40 K, 210 Pb and 208 Tl and artificial ( 137 Cs) radionuclides in the surface sediment, were included in the calculations for the estimation of the activity concentrations in the water using the sediment-water distribution coefficient (Kd) of the ERICA database. The preliminary results of MCNP-CP simulations were in good agreement with those of ERICA for all radionuclides.


Understanding the nature and process of initial Pacific settlement by people carrying the Lapita culture is ultimately founded upon accurate knowledge of the timing and speed of settlement. This paper reports on re-dating of one of the earliest Lapita sites (SE-SZ-8) from Santa Cruz in the Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands on the western margin of Remote Oceania. Our results indicate this site is considerably younger than previously believed and comparison of this result to other early Lapita sites suggests initial settlement of Remote was at not much more than 3000 BP. This would argue for very rapid Lapita settlement of much of the South-western Pacific.


Marjorie Brooks-Jones PhD (Miami) teaches in the School of English Studies at The Colleges of the Bahamas.  Recent publications are the essays, "Telling a 'Nativist' Story: Patrician Glinton-Meicholas's A Shift in the Light" ( College of The Bahamas Research Journal Vol. 13, 2005) and "Rewriting Empire: from Colonialism Incorporated in Mary Seacole's Wonderful Adventures in Many Lands to Michelle Cliff's Project of Decolonisation in No Telepphone to Heaven" in Swinging her Breasts at History: Language, Body and the Caribbean Woman's Text. Current projects include a comparative study of contemporary Bahamian and Caribbean Women's Writing.  She is a member of the editorial board of Anthurium, a Caribbean Studies Journal.


Many companies are now faced with a huge engineering challenge. It has less to do with STEM, and more to do with creating the passion, drive and innovation in our future STEM workforce. We acknowledge a STEM pipeline, however, and that the pipeline must be constantly supplied and maintained to positively impact production and product. The projected demand for STEM workers in the near future is very high, which is accompanied by a very high earning potential for these workers. Afterschool programs, such as STARBASE 2.0 Afterschool STEM Mentoring Clubs, target middle school students help to develop our future STEM workforce. STEM Mentor programs such as these, not only present real-world challenges to students to help mold and sharpen their STEM skills, but also allow students to experience and put into practice strong soft skills that organizations say they look for, such as written communication, team-building, and leadership abilities. STARBASE 2.0 also helps to increase the diversity within the pipeline and allows diverse students to interact with someone who looks like them and who is already in the STEM field, through the mentoring aspect of the program. The afterschool or out of school time setting has allowed students to be more focused on challenges and allows for time to be creative and innovative.


The effect of passivation oxide thickness and layout on the current gain of SiC bipolar junction transistors is reported. Different thicknesses of plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposited (PECVD) silicon dioxide in the range 50-150 nm were deposited prior to the same annealing process in N2O, and their effect on the transistor gain was investigated for different device layouts. For a fixed device layout, ~60 % higher gains were observed for oxide thicknesses ranging between 100 and 150 nm with current gains of ~200 at room temperature and >100 at 300 °C. For each tested thickness of deposited oxide, device layout providing lower collector resistance achieved slightly higher gains.


Recent research in multi-agent systems incorporate fault tolerance concepts, but does not explore the extension and implementation of such ideas for large scale parallel computing systems. The work reported in this paper investigates a swarm array computing approach, namely 'Intelligent Agents'. A task to be executed on a parallel computing system is decomposed to sub-tasks and mapped onto agents that traverse an abstracted hardware layer. The agents intercommunicate across processors to share information during the event of a predicted core/processor failure and for successfully completing the task. The feasibility of the approach is validated by simulations on an FPGA using a multi-agent simulator, and implementation of a parallel reduction algorithm on a computer cluster using the Message Passing Interface.


Among 64 mothers in two villages in a rural Zambian population who reported childhood diarrhoea, 41 (64%) sought treatment from a health centre or clinic. Among these, 22 (54%) were given oral rehydration salts (ORS) and 19 (46%) were given medications other than ORS. Among the 23 who did not attend a health centre, 14 gave home remedies which included salt and sugar solution, of which, in five, the medicines used were from traditional healers. Overall, 43 (67.2%) of the mothers used some fluids as the first line of treatment. The fluids were infrequently given and in almost all instances, irrespective of the source of the fluid, no more than 15 ml were given over a 24 h period. Furthermore, among the mothers who used fluids, 28 (65.1%) reported stopping the fluids completely if the child vomited. None of the mothers however reported completely withdrawing food from the children. Age and educational level of the mother were not significant factors (P greater than 0.05). These findings suggest that education of mothers on home management of diarrhoea and the proper use of ORS needs to be re-emphasized and health care personnel need to be fully conversant with currently recommended methods for treatment of childhood diarrhoea.


The preparation and characterization of a series of novel ferroelectric liquid crystalline dendrimers are presented. End-capping of 1-, 2-, and 3-generation dendrimers based on 2,2-bis(hydroxymethyl)propionic acid with mesogens gave surface-functionalized liquid crystalline compounds with 6, 12, and 24 mesogen-containing units, respectively. 4 -((R)-1-Methylheptyloxy)phenyl 4-(4 '-[10(hydroxycarbonyl)decyloxyl phenyl)benzoate was synthesized and used as a mesogen-containing unit. The purity and structure of each compound were determined by H-1 NMR spectroscopy, size exclusion chromatography, and elemental analysis. Differential scanning calorimetry and optical microscopy were used to investigate the mesomorphic properties of the mesogen-functionalized dendrimers. The materials displayed a variety of mesophases, including the smectic C* phase. All the liquid crystalline dendrimers showed ferroelectricity, and tilt angle and spontaneous polarization measurements were performed. The obtained results show that the ferroelectric properties of the materials are independent of the generation number of the dendritic scaffold.


New discoveries afford a much better knowledge of the large birds previously reported from the Upper Cretaceous of southern France on the basis of a single synsacrum fragment. An incomplete pelvis consisting of the synsacrum with part of the ilia is used to define a new taxon of bird, Gargantuavis philoinos, to which a femur is also referred. This bird is characterized by its very large size (comparable to that of an ostrich), a broad pelvis with an anteriorly placed acetabulum, and a short robust femur. The occurrence of this very large, flightless, bird in the Late Cretaceous shows that, contrary to widespread opinion, the evolution of large terrestrial birds was not simply the result of adaptation during the Cenozoic to ecological niches left empty by the extinction of the dinosaurs. It also strongly suggests that some of the large fossil eggs from the Upper Cretaceous of southern France were laid by large ground birds rather than dinosaurs.


We examined the effect of oral intake of pure glucosylceramide derived from konjac extract on skin barrier function evaluated by transepidermal water loss (TEWL) in hairless mice with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)induced skin roughness. The difference of TEWL between SDS-treated site and untreated sites in the pure glucosylceramide-fed group was significantly lower than that in control group on day 14 of ingestion. We investigated interleukin-1α (IL-1α )p roduction in the hairless mouse skin, and it was significantly lower in the glucosylceramide-fed group than that of control animals. This reduced IL-1α production should contribute to improvement of skin barrier function. To investigate the effect of oral intake of glucosylceramide in human, we conducted a randomized double-blind placebo-controlle ds tudy including 100 healthy subjects whose TEWL in cheek was relatively high. As a result, cheek TEWL was significantly lower in the test product group as compared with the control group in weeks 8 and 12 of ingestion (p =0 .023 and p =0 .002 respectively).


Unexplained weight loss during the latter stages of aging is commonly preceded by a spontaneous diminution in food intake. Multiple etiologies of age-related anorexia in humans, ranging from social isolation to impaired gastrointestinal function, have been proposed. The observation of this phenomenon in older laboratory animals suggests that physiological changes play a significant causal role. A continually expanding body of information on the neurochemical control of food intake supports a contribution of altered neurochemistry to dysregulated feeding behavior. This review provides an update on the relationship between declining food intake during advanced age and physiological (specifically neurochemical) function. The complexity of the control of food intake as well as the variety of investigative methods used in this field of study render the identification of definitive causes difficult. Evidence presented here is evaluated and possible etiologic factors are suggested.


One important and under-researched aspect of labour market policy is the extent to which policy interventions are effective in modifying job search behaviour. Furthermore, there is little extant research on whether certain job search behaviours lead to labour market success. Our analysis uses the only existing largescale longitudinal survey of Indigenous Australians to examine the effects of job search behaviour over an 18-month period from March 1996. One major fi nding is that the introduction of the Job Search Diary during the survey period was effective in increasing search intensity—but this increase in intensity did not result in increased employment rates. Another finding is that the job search methods used were not generally related to the probability of fi nding and retaining employment when a range of other personal and regional factors are taken into account. Those with a greater level of search intensity (as measured by the number of jobs applied for) at the fi rst wave of the survey did have a signifi cantly higher probability of finding employment than those searching less intensely. However, search intensity is unrelated to the probability of job retention. Other factors, such as educational attainment, health status, region of residence and having been arrested, account for the majority of labour market success (or lack of it) among unemployed Indigenous job seekers.


Colour is used to adorn and decorate and many have tried to find an organisational system that could concretely states how colour is to be used correctly.In this book Marisha McAuliffe examines the concept of colour and its uses for those who design professionally or those who simply want to appreciate the complexities of colour. It examines light and contrast, and explains the pitfalls that are to be avoided in colour design. The book explores different concepts relating to, and including, colour history, systems and theories, requirements for a colour-based design project, research, and generation of colour schemes so as to create optimal experiences for colour in architecture, interior architecture and design. To fully understand colour, the book ventures into its scientific and 'non-scientific' elements compiling key points about its many characteristics. Taken together, this book is a compressive guide for those who seek to work with colour and to tap its enormous potentials for design effect.


Prince Pondicherry of India, from the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory [1], ordered a huge palace to be created for him made entirely out of chocolate, but soon after it was completed the entire palace melted around him due to the heat of the sun. We calculated that during May when the sun over India is hottest, the palace would have reached its melting point by 12:00, a little more than 6 hours after sunrise, but it would take approximately two days to melt entirely.


Industrial robotic manipulators can be found in most factories today. Their tasks are
accomplished through actively moving, placing and assembling parts. This movement
is facilitated by actuators that apply a torque in response to a command signal. The
presence of friction and possibly backlash have instigated the development of sophisticated
compensation and control methods in order to achieve the desired performance
may that be accurate motion tracking, fast movement or in fact contact with the
environment.
This thesis presents a dual drive actuator design that is capable of physically linearising
friction and hence eliminating the need for complex compensation algorithms. A
number of mathematical models are derived that allow for the simulation of the actuator
dynamics. The actuator may be constructed using geared dc motors, in which
case the benefits of torque magnification is retained whilst the increased non-linear
friction effects are also linearised. An additional benefit of the actuator is the high
quality, low latency output position signal provided by the differencing of the two
drive positions. Due to this and the linearised nature of friction, the actuator is
well suited for low velocity, stop-start applications, micro-manipulation and even in
hard-contact tasks.
There are, however, disadvantages to its design. When idle, the device uses power
whilst many other, single drive actuators do not. Also the complexity of the models
mean that parameterisation is difficult. Management of start-up conditions still pose
a challenge.


Recently, self-supervised 6D object pose estimation, where synthetic images with object poses (sometimes jointly with un-annotated real images) are used for training, has attracted much attention in computer vision. Some typical works in literature employ a time-consuming differentiable renderer for object pose prediction at the training stage, so that (i) their performances on real images are generally limited due to the gap between their rendered images and real images and (ii) their training process is computationally expensive. To address the two problems, we propose a novel Network for Self-supervised Monocular Object pose estimation by utilizing the predicted Camera poses from unannotated real images, called SMOC-Net. The proposed network is explored under a knowledge distillation framework, consisting of a teacher model and a student model. The teacher model contains a backbone estimation module for initial object pose estimation, and an object pose refiner for refining the initial object poses using a geometric constraint (called relative-pose constraint) derived from relative camera poses. The student model gains knowledge for object pose estimation from the teacher model by imposing the relative-pose constraint. Thanks to the relative-pose constraint, SMOC-Net could not only narrow the domain gap between synthetic and real data but also reduce the training cost. Experimental results on two public datasets demonstrate that SMOC-Net outperforms several state-of-the-art methods by a large margin while requiring much less training time than the differentiable-renderer-based methods.


The great struggles of the twentieth century between liberty and totalitarianism ended with a decisive victory for the forces of freedom – and a single sustainable model for national success: freedom, democracy, and free enterprise. In the twenty-first century, only nations that share a commitment to protecting basic human rights and guaranteeing political and economic freedom will be able to unleash the potential of their people and assure their future prosperity. People everywhere want to be able to speak freely; choose who will govern them; worship as they please; educate their children – male and female; own property; and enjoy the benefits of their labor. These values of freedom are right and true for every person, in every society – and the duty of protecting these values against their enemies is the common calling of freedom-loving people across the globe and across the ages.


Mutations in RPGR (retinitis pigmentosa GTPase regulator) are the most common cause of X-linked RP, a severe blindness disorder. RPGR mutations result in clinically variable disease with early- to late-onset phenotypic presentation. Molecular mechanisms underlying such heterogeneity are unclear. Here we show that phenotypic expression of Rpgr-loss in mice is influenced genetically by the loss of Cep290, a human ciliopathy gene. We found that Rpgrko/Y mice with a heterozygous hypomorphic allele of Cep290 (Cep290rd16/+) but not of a heterozygous null allele of Cep290 (Cep290null/+) or of other ciliopathy genes, Rpgrip1, Nphp1, Nphp4 and Nphp5, exhibit relatively early onset (by 3 months of age) retinal degeneration and dysfunction when compared with the onset at ∼7 months of age in the Rpgrko/Y mice. We also observed disorganized photoreceptor outer-segment morphology and defective trafficking of opsins in the Rpgrko/Y::Cep290rd16/+ mice. Together with a physical interaction between RPGR and the C-terminal domain of CEP290, our data suggest that RPGR and CEP290 genetically interact and highlight the involvement of hypomorphic alleles of genes as potential modifiers of heterogeneous retinal ciliopathies.


Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by social cognition deficits, including difficulties inferring the intentions of others. Although deficits in attribution of intentions (AI) have been consistently replicated in ASD, their exact nature remains unexplored. Here we registered the electrophysiological correlates of a nonverbal social cognition task to investigate AI in autistic adults. Twenty‐one male autistic adults and 30 male neurotypical volunteers performed a comic strips task depicting either intentional action (AI) or physical causality with or without human characters, while their electroencephalographic signal was recorded. Compared to neurotypical volunteers, autistic participants were significantly less accurate in correctly identifying congruence in the AI condition, but not in the physical causality conditions. In the AI condition a bilateral posterior positive event‐related potential (ERP) occurred 200–400 ms post‐stimulus (the ERP intention effect) in both groups. This waveform comprised a P200 and a P300 component, with the P200 component being larger for the AI condition in neurotypical volunteers but not in autistic individuals, who also showed a longer latency for this waveform. Group differences in amplitude of the ERP intention effect only became evident when we compared autistic participants to a subgroup of similarly performing neurotypical participants, suggesting that the atypical ERP waveform in ASD is an effect of group, rather than a marker of low‐task performance. Together, these results suggest that the lower accuracy of the ASD group in the AI task may result from impaired early attentional processing and contextual integration of socially relevant cues.